Imagine if you sat down with your morning cup of coffee, opened the newspaper to your favorite section, and realized that the courier had mistakenly delivered the paper in a foreign language. For preschoolers, trying to decipher written text is the same as a literate adult trying to decrypt a foreign language. A great way to reinforce letter recognition and show your preschoolers how letters work together to build words, is to practice with words they may (or may not) recognize - their names!

Anne, creator of the blog Teaching Two, suggests creating individual "name pages" where students can familiarize themselves with the letters that belong in their name, learn how these letters sound when strung together, and practice writing by tracing or copying their names. Creating A "Name Page"

Go to Kidzone's Custom Tracer Pages tool (http://www.kidzone.ws/tracers/index.htm).
Choose a theme for your page or select the "Blank (No Pictures)" option.
Choose a font - Standard Block Print, Script Type Print, or Cursive.
Type the student's name in the space provided. Try several different different formats for extra practice (e.g. all uppercase, upper- and lowercase, etc.)
Print the practice page.

To use these name pages, insert them into a plastic document sleeve and provide students with low-odor dry erase markers to practice tracing or copying. You could even turn it into a fun game. Make cards for each letter of the alphabet, place these into a bag, and draw them at random. Invite your students to cross off the letter if they have it in their name. The first student to cross off all their letters can then help draw from the bag, etc.

Teaching Two » Name Writing

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